THIS invention relates to a method of and a system for conducting interactive data exchange functions between a user base, typically at home or at an office and a remote computer network.
The data exchange may relate to financial transactions including banking and/or shopping transactions. The known systems and methods for conducting home shopping and home banking transactions suffer from the disadvantage that they are either not fully interactive in real time and/or they do not provide a visual communication interface at the user base, such as the home or office.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system with which the applicant believes the aforementioned disadvantages may at least be alleviated.
According to the invention there is provided a system for performing an interactive data exchange function from a user base, the system including:
input means at the user base for entering request data relating to the function;
means for transmitting the request data to a computer network including one or more of a computer network of at least one financial institution; a computer network of at least one vendor; and a computer network of at least one service provider;
receiver means at the user base for receiving response signals from the network and which signals include encoded response data; and
signal decoding and display means at the user base connected to the receiver for decoding the response data and displaying the data in real time and interactively with the request data.
The interactive data exchange function may be a data retrieval action or may form part of a financial transaction. Financial transactions could include banking transactions such as balance requests, funds transfer transactions, electronic account payment transactions and purchase transactions with vendors and/or service providers connected to the network.
The receiver means may include an antenna for receiving signals transmitted from the network via an earth orbiting satellite.
The signal decoding means may form part of a decoder for decoding subscription television broadcast and the display means may be in the form of a screen of a television set connected to the decoder.
The input means may include a telephone instrument; and the means for transmitting the request data may include a telephone network linking the instrument to the computer network.
In another embodiment the decoding means may be in the form of a decoder module forming part of a personal computer connected to the receiver means and the display means may be in the form of a screen of the personal computer.
The input means may include a keyboard connected to the personal computer and the means for transmitting the request data may include a modem connected to the personal computer and to a telephone network connectable to the computer network.
In yet another embodiment the means for transmitting the request data may include a transmitter at the user base connected to an antenna to transmit the request data via an earth orbiting satellite to the computer network.
Also included within the scope of the present invention is a method of performing from a user base station interactive data exchange functions with a network including one or more of a computer network of at least one financial institution; a computer network of at least one vendor; and a computer network of at least one service provider, the method including the steps of:
transmitting from the user base station request data relating to the function;
at the network receiving the request data and generating response data
transmitting the response data in encoded form so that it can only be decoded by a decoder designated by the user;
at the base station receiving the encoded data and decoding the data by means of the designated decoder; and
displaying the data in real time and interactively with the request data transmitted.
Further according to the method, at least one of the request data and the response signal is transmitted via a telephone network.
In other embodiments at least part of the encoded response data may be transmitted by wireless transmission. More particularly said at least part of the response data may be transmitted via an earth orbiting satellite to the decoder designated by the user.
In some embodiments the request data may be transmitted from the user base to the network via a telephone network. Alternatively the commands may be transmitted from the user base to the network via an earth orbiting satellite.